Literal versus Expressive Representations

[johnastovall]

Literal versus Expressive Representations an essay by Alain Briot or why creative photography isn't like a box of corn flakes.

[jeffkohn]

I agree with this approach. I'm attempting to create art, not document something for historical or scientific record. I think this is part of why B&W has long been considered more "artistic" by some people than color; B&W photography has always been a more "interpretive" process when it comes to developing and printing.

Honestly though, todays digital photographers pretty much have to post-process. For decades, the color photography that people got used to seeing was shot on Velvia, often slightly and/or under-exposed using grads and possibly other filters. Such photos are hardly realistic as far as color and tone, but that's what people have come to expect color photos to look like (at least, for certain genres of imagery). So when they see a digital photograph with it's more neutral rendering, it looks flat and undersaturated even though it's more "realistic".

I do think that unless you're getting into highly interpretive or abstract imagery, the edited photo should at least look believeable. If the editing is too obvious, it becomes a distraction. But that's a line everybody has to draw for themselves.